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8
On perusing the correspondence,* it will be seen that
Mr. Bannister, describing his practice at the Government
Laboratory, writes:—
"We have no power to fix standards of quality, and the
limits that we impose, of 8.5 % non-fatty solids and 2.75 %
of fat, are only intended to guide the magistrates in
demanding strict proof that poor samples of milk brought
before them are as obtained from the cow, and not made
so by the addition of water or the removal of fat."
For the Analyst "to fix standards of quality" is manifestly
no part of the duty imposed upon him by the Adulteration
Acts; but it is obvious that the Analyst, unless he have regard
to the quality of fair samples, could never affirm that any
sample was adulterated. How could the Analyst certify that
an article was not "of the nature, substance and quality
demanded," unless by comparison with some standard of that
"nature, substance and quality"? In the Eleventh Annual
Report of the Local Government Board this fundamental
question is dealt with as follows:—
"The Analyst, in judging of milk, must necessarily
adopt a minimum standard of constituents based on a
large number of analyses of genuine milk. But there
would be a great difficulty in prescribing a standard by
Act of Parliament, as has occasionally been suggested, for
if it were fixed as low as to class as genuine the milk of
the oldest and worst-fed cows to be found in the country,
it would admit the addition of an enormous amount of
water to milk of fair quality; if, on the other hand, the
standard of a fair average milk were adopted, there would
be a loud outcry against the prohibition to sell genuine
milk falling below that average."
Obviously, the question of a standard being set up by the
Analyst for his own guidance is a different thing from that of
the erection of standards in a general sense. But Mr.
Bannister also appears to introduce, with a light heart, an
alteration in the English Constitution. He suggests that a
tradesman is to be hauled up before a magistrate on
suspicion, in order to be made to prove that he has not
watered his milk. If I read Mr. Bannister's proposition
correctly, he issues from the Government Laboratory a certificate
affirming certain scientific conclusions, the truth of which
conclusions depends upon whether the said milk afterwards
proves to have been extracted from a cow or not. (Vide letters,
Nov. 15 and Dec. 14, pages 15 and 23.)
* Vide letter of Dec. 14, page 23.